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Sunday, August 11, 2013

The tiny village of
Nyachipere being flipped upside down through a couple small homemade soccer
balls and a little church whose goal is to kick the devil in the face.

In our football (soccer) and netball trainings, one of the
things that we teach our kids is to steal the ball.We show them how to look for an opportunity
to snatch the ball from the opposition and score for their team.Many of our coaches and kids have become
masters of stealing.Not just stealing
the ball but something much greater: souls.The thing we emphasize most is that there are youth all around them who
need Jesus and who’ve got to be snatched from the kingdom of darkness and
brought into the light of Christ.We
fish for men and in doing so, we steal from the devil.

God has entrusted us with something wonderful: His Good
news.And because we have heard this
Good News and God has opened our eyes to the truth of the Gospel, we now are
set ablaze to proclaim it to others.He
also has designed a deep love for football (soccer) in just about every little
boy in Malawi. So, in this Sports Friends ministry, we want to link the two
(the Gospel & Football) to introduce many young people to their Savior.In doing so, we have found the Word of God to
be true and that the Lord really has many people in remote places whose hearts
have literally been longing for the Good News of Jesus Christ.As Ephesians 1:4 says, “For He chose us in
him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In
love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ….”In this process of equipping, discipling, and
commissioning sports ministers we have found this Word from Eph 1 to be
true.The Lord has people out in the most
remote, forgotten places that we must bring the Gospel to.But it does not end with just proclamation of
the Gospel…no way!Then, Eph 1 talks
about how God has got people chosen in these places whom He’s appointed to be
adopted into His family since the beginning of time!This is crazy!God has got this thing rigged and it’s
beautiful.We simply need to proclaim
the Gospel to people. We’ve got to tell them because there is a good chance
that they are going to be one of those who have been chosen from the beginning
of time and they are going to respond in faith, have their sins forgiven and be
filled with the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life.Yes!Hell is being depopulated and robbed from humble servants who are
willing to go to lost people where they are at and tell them about a King and a
kingdom that is worth surrendering everything for.So…we go. We go with the Gospel and we preach
it and live it out with confidence, not of our own, but confidence in God and
His Word.Confidence that He has got
people who are just waiting to hear. He’s already got them elected from the
beginning of time and we trust in Him to do the heart-work and transform their
lives form the inside out.All glory be
to God!He is using simple people like
us to depopulate hell and bring many into the Kingdom!Here is one example of a brother in Malawi
who is “stealing” souls from the devil and introducing them to Jesus on a daily
basis.

This update just came from our brother and fellow worker in the Lord, Pastor Fostance.Read and be encouraged that this world is not our home and our one purpose is to depopulate hell by the Holy Spirit’s life transforming power.

The youth are hungry for the Word

Sports ministry is new to the small village in southern
Malawi called Nyachipere. The church has elected a sports ministry leader and
sent him out to the community.His name
is Stanley Joe and we recently met with him and heard how God is using him. He is going hard at obeying the Lord’s commands in Scripture and God is making His name famous in Nyachipere because of it.He
said the ministry started very well and many youth from all over came to play
football and hear about Jesus.But he
did not just stop with one sports ministry team but he has now gone and started
three teams.Two teams for boys football
(under 10 and under 14) plus one ladies netball team.

Stanley Joe with other sports ministers from his region

From the time we shared the vision of sports ministry with his
church back in March, Stanley really has had a heart to use sport as a platform
for the Gospel in his community.And
praise the Lord that he also has received continual encouragement from his
church.From the first day we met with
him back in March, he went that day and got together the kids of his village
and shared the vision with them.The
kids were very happy but still they had no ball.But this was not a stumbling block for long
because their coach is creative and he quickly made a cheap local ball from
plastic papers. His transformed heart was able to see past initial
difficulties.His passion for souls
fueled him to think outside the box to make sure this ministry did not stall
and die.Jesus didn’t give up on us, so
Stanley was not going to give up on them.

For the last several months, they have met several times
each week and have used these local balls.Each day that have to stop in the middle of their practices and repair
pieces of the ball that fall off but it has been something that has bound them
together.Because of the passion of
this one coach, today there is a healthy youth sports ministry and it continues
to grow in both number and in spritual depth. He said his church has even
managed to come up with some money for them to buy three good balls.This is a big deal and he thanked the church
for their amazing support. Also Stanley praised God for the support and
encouragement he continues receiving from Sports Friends Malawi.We are committed to going and following up
with them in their villages and this means so much to our sacrificial
coaches.

It is so humbling to see what great things God is doing in
these many places!Jesus is revealing
himself more to malawian young people and churches.I can remember very well when we were just
starting in 2011.It was not easy for
the church to support their local team with a ball. But now we just praise God
for the support we are seeing contributed from churches.They bring the little they have materially
and give it for the furtherance of the Gospel in their community. There are
many things that these churches need to do in order to support their teams. But
even in little things the Bible tells us to give thanks. We hope by the grace
of God to see more churches take initiaitve and have a willingness to support
the ministry like the one in Nyachipere.Because of this, over 50 youth are weekly being ministered to through
Stanley and God is using him and his local church in a profound way to
contextually bring the message of Jesus to these people. These people of
Nyachipere were in sin and locked into the powers of darkness but now a great
Light has risen in their land and they are introduced to Jesus, are responding
to Him, and we again are stealing from the Devil.

Colossians 1:13“For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us
into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedomand forgave
our sins.”